ITEM!
I'm selling a bunch of my homemade stuffed animals at the Speed Shop in Providence this Sunday. It's not really "an event" other than I'm doing this, and Toasters Bakery will be set up with bagels (and more???), and the coffee's slamming. Maybe the weather will be lovely and it'll be a great day for a bike ride? Maybe it'll be overcast or even a chance of light rain-- a wonderful day to sip a coffee in an old mill? Either way you can't lose. I'll be there 9am to 2pm. There's a nice little bookstore in there too and God I hope it's open... It's great but he keeps casual hours, kind of unpredictable. To keep myself from spending too much money in there (or any, actually) I gave the guy (Goldy) a divers stack of Mothers News back issues on consignment for store credit. Last week I got there kind of early and he had only sold one, so I could only get this single quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore:
Longshot but if any funky landlords are reading this I'm trying to push Goldy to open his store in a location that isn't like the Foot Clan lair in the original Ninja Turtles movie. Looking for a place where he could be open for more than less than one day a week, somewhere someone like for instance me could go on for instance a Tuesday and get (by way of example) an occult book or scuzzy paperback. And more people would see the store and bring him their occult books for buy or trade, and then we could have, you know, world peace. No agents but if you have a commercial property that would benefit from an extremely nice little bookstore please reach out and I'll put you guys in touch. I'm trying to tell him that in informal networks like Rhode Island the first step is to broadcast your intentions until you find A Guy. But he's not such a loudmouth. I, on the other hand...
ITEM!
My artists residency program is chugging along nicely, and with the warm weather there's been a clear uptick in applications. Definitely apply if you're planning to come to Rhode Island / New England any time. Instead of taking place at a rustic farmhouse or something this residency takes place at a coffee shop (location to be determined), and it only lasts about 90 minutes, or longer if we're really rolling. You can apply online. I buy the coffee (or tea). This is open to artists at any stage in their career but it is only open to artists, not people who tell me "I'm not really an artist". I will not gatekeep who gets to call themselves an artist, but you do have to be like "I'm an artist". If that makes you uncomfortable that's OK!
Each residency gets its own little writeup on the official website:
As with many artists residencies there is a cost, and this one is $250. Also similar to many residencies, there is a scholarship program-- mine has a 100% acceptance rate and is available to everyone who indicates that they want it, bringing the cost to the artist down to zero. So far in the blessed lifespan of this project we've awarded over $27,000 in scholarships. Real talk: if any non-profit arts admin types out there have any tips on how to turn this basically imaginary sum into actual money that I put in the literal pocket of my physical pants please reach out, I will drop everything to talk to you. I will move the sun and the stars. Or at least I will allow them to move of their own accord.Met up with printmaker / sculptor / cool website person Jaeyon Jo at Reprise Coffee. Jaeyon had been talking about applying for a while, I'm happy they persevered and got over the inumerable hurdles that can materialize when you have a 2 minute item on your to do list for several months. No shade, I've been there! We all have. I'm like, never not there. Anyway we had a really nice talk about upcoming travels, carpentry, the Aeron chair, the Art Farm (Nebraska), bookstores, taking time, "long-legged beauties" (talking 100% about myself here), life stuff, stability, and the desire to avoid talking about what you're working on so you don't pull motivation away from it. We both got coffee with cream, it was very good. After a while we got up and then walked in the sun to get ice cream cones! The conversation continued of course but at that point we went off record.
ITEM!
I'm dropping something special next week and maybe this is silly but I decided as an experiment to offset the website update and the emails by 24 hours. There's no real reason for this, I just want to make it a little bit more special to check a website on your own time, without a notification. Personally I had a great week of randomly running into people in the street and having a nice little chat, and I guess I want to make it more like that, and less like Your Favorite Brand Is Sending You Deals. Even though I am your favorite brand, and I am sending you deals. Anyway if you want to just read the emails on Wednesday that's totally fine but if you want to see it a day early just check the castle on Tuesday after 11am East Coast USA time.
Also on the "dollhouse news" tip, I put a "Recent Comments" section on the main page so you can quickly see what's happening in commentsworld. I'm also thinking about installing comments retroactively on the old posts. I was clocking YouTube recently and I thought how nice it would be to get some "who's making sauerkraut in 2028" type comments on here. Probably going to chip away at that this week. Shoutout to everyone leaving comments! It causes my brain to release a chemical reward. :)
links / misc
- link to my residency, CTRI Innovations: [link]
- email me if you're in Providence and you need directions to the Speed Shoppe :)
- Hi! 👋️
If you got here through a link, click here to go outside and come back in: [outside]
Archives of previous posts is here, in the coat room: [coatroom]
To sign up to get these posts in your email for free, click here: [substack]
To write me a nice message, use the contacts page: [link]
To leave a little donation to help in the maintance of this castle, OR to simply hear the sound of a large bell, which is good luck, visit the temple area: [link]
As always, if you're bugging out or need a respite from endlessly scrolling the feed, you are welcome to hang out in the castle as long as you want. :)
Comments
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I'm working on something fun with this, with like, cool little icons. but for now all this does is allow you to sign your name in a way that identifies you as the writer, so no one can spoof you. And it turns your name gold. :)
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